07032003Facts Of Life 2003 Relationships As Common Denominators
In Illness And In HealthVictoria Harrison, MA
Facts of life are hard to come by. Everyone faces important decisions with limited knowledge. This is anxious. Emotional reactions occur. In the absence of knowledge, some people imagine the best or the worst and act on that. Many pursue the answers of others and follow where experts lead. Perhaps it is a smaller percentage who knows the limits of knowledge, get curious and figure things out best they can. Some of these are scientists. Some are family members. Anyone can do that when they depend more upon themselves and when they can see the difference between thinking and reacting.
Facts of Life 2003, the annual conference of CSNS&F, provides a time for audience and speakers alike to focus on facts about the impact of relationships in health and on illness. Some people use this conference as a resource for thinking about themselves and problems in their own family. A scientist may use the time to identify variables to include in research design; a teacher may design curriculum. A pastor may write a Sunday sermon using concepts from family systems to describe the challenges of being human. Hospital chaplains may consider the ways that they influence patients and patient care. A physician may think about how to identify what is going on in the family of patients who do not respond to treatment. The hospital administrator may figure out how to study the impact of changes in staffing on response to medication. Graduate students attending on scholarships will write about how the presentations relate to their field or family or work. Everyone has a chance to grapple with some important challenge in their life or family or work with the advantage of systems theory and science as a springboard.
Here are questions I bring to this conference. How do patterns of relationship in a system govern the biology and behavior of individual members? What is the nature of connectedness between members of a family? How do reactions and thinking spread in chain reaction fashion throughout a family or society? How do these processes in a family emotional system govern reproduction, health, and death?
I will be thinking about how to design research projects that better identify how relationships between family members produce patterns of reactivity associated with stability and with symptom development and how to document the changes that occur when a family member is able to modify his or her functioning in the family. Is it possible to study the impact of relationships in the family and society on cells and processes within the cells? Does this work apply to cancer, to early miscarriage, to endometriosis? I will be working on the book I am writing about biology and relationships in the family, about family systems, health and reproduction.
Speakers, invited guests and audience members will present their best thinking about their own questions and quandaries.
Michael Kerr, Director of Bowen Center for the Study of the Family, will describe natural systems theory as a framework for study, for learning more about the forces at play in one's own family and for research in the sciences. Murray Bowen's observations about the human family as a natural system, part of the evolution of all life, generated concepts and variables that provide science a fertile field for the study of relationships as common denominators in illness and in health. Dr. Kerr's book, Family Evaluation, is an introduction to Bowen theory and includes an afterward, "An Odyssey Toward Science" by Murray Bowen. His article on "Bowen Theory and Evolutionary Theory" distinguishes the important contributions of each to the study of human adaptation and health. Dr. Kerr will describe natural systems theory and demonstrate ways that systems thinking provides a basis for integration of research from various disciplines and across levels of investigation. His work with families in which cancers occur illustrate theory as a blueprint for new learning and for addressing challenges faced by families and by those who care for them.
Science presentations, from molecular research, neuroscience, biology and medicine, will provide facts about how relationships between cells, between brains and bodies, between family members and in society impact biology and health. Discussion about the discipline of study, innovative technology, and relationship process in science will permit a growing appreciation for the efforts involved.
John Mathias, Neurogastroenterologist in medical practice focused on symptoms that impact health and reproduction, will outline the impact of diet and stress on basic metabolic processes involved in symptoms and in health. His studies of the impact of glucose and insulin levels on GI activity and on neural activity illustrate ways in which reactivity to diet and relationships interacts in a constellation of symptoms, both medical and psychiatric, conventionally treated as separate disorders. He will discuss observations about improvement in a variety of symptoms when disturbances in metabolic reactivity are corrected. Dr. Mathias has written numerous articles for medical and popular literature on his research and medical practice.
The research of Stephen Suomi along with colleagues and students in his lab at demonstrates the ability to study the impact of reactivity, transmitted in biochemistry over generations of parents and young, on genetic expression involved in symptoms of aggression and alcoholism. His studies provide models for investigating the impact of relationships between generations of family members on reactivity involved in development of a variety of symptoms that impact health. His recent article in Foundations in Neuroscience, "Attachment in Rhesus Monkeys", outlines this work.
Wallace McKeehan, Director of Center for Cancer and Nutrition at Texas A & M University System Health Science Center Institute for Biosciences and Technology, will describe observations about patterns of interaction between cells and molecules associated with a healthy organism and with development of cancer. He will discuss research that investigates the impact of diet and environmental toxins on cell activity with a focus on future directions for study, for treatment, and for prevention. Dr. McKeehan is a scientist with his own interests in family and family history and a teacher with an ability to relate his work to a broad audience.
Alvin Tarlov, Executive Director of the Texas Program in Society and Health at Rice University, directs research and educational programs focused on the impact of societal factors on the health of populations. A background in medical practice and health care administration establishes a foundation for his commitment to applications of knowledge in public policy. Dr. Tarlov's ability to think in terms of the impact, both of family and society, on health positions him for unique contributions. An overview of his perspective can be found in The Society and Population Health Reader: A State and Community Perspective..
I have added a presentation of my work with families in which endometriosis occurs to the program for Facts of Life 2003. This presentation will outline clinical observations and facts from biology that are the basis for a research project that has implications for diagnoses, treatment and prevention. A series of articles in Family Systems Forum, "A Better Chance," describe this work in more detail. An article, on the physiology of relationships by Louise Rauseo provides excellent background for research in biology and neuroscience consistent with Bowen's observations about reactivity to relationships.
A panel of speakers and invited guests will discuss the thinking stirred by these presentations. A natural systems theory permits people who think differently about the same concerns to contribute and to learn from each other, without pressures to agree or debate or footnote each other. Each person will integrate the thinking of the conference in his or her own way.
Nancy Dickey brings a background in medical practice and health care administration to her position as President of Texas A & M Health Science Center. Richard Finnell directs Albert B. Alkek Institute of Biosciences and Technology at Texas A & M University System Health Science Center as well as his own research in the impact of environmental toxins and diet on genetic factors producing birth defects. William Brinkley, Vice President and Dean of Graduate Programs in Biomedical Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine, is a molecular biologist whose research led him toward public education in science and toward work to increase the federal budget for science. Betty Carrington, a psychotherapist and teacher, has employed Bowen theory around the occurrence of cancers in her own family. Daryl Koehn directs the Center for Business Ethics at St. Thomas University Cameron School of Business where she is interested in the implications of systems thinking and facts from science for business and health care.
Michael Quinn, a psychologist in private practice and teacher, is Director of Center for the Study of Natural Systems and the Family and brings to discussion his interests in research development.
Speakers, guests, and members of the audience will find that Facts of Life 2003 will challenge current thinking and stir new avenues to consider. Exposure to a different theory, to new facts, and to unfamiliar fields is a mixed blessing. The experience activates emotional reactions. What does a creature do when faced with a new fact, an unfamiliar idea? It can avoid it. It may see it as more of the same. It may get curious and examine it. People put the thinking to work in a variety of ways.
The annual conference series is designed more for the opportunity to learn and think than for networking or socializing. One audience member said, "This is like study hall. That was my favorite class." People make the best use of this conference when they prepare with a focus on questions or projects of their own. What do I want to work on during these two days? What are the questions I want to address? What do I want to better understand in my own family? Often people write on two pages of paper at once, one for the speaker's comments and the other for the thinking stirred of their own. Books and articles written or recommended by speakers will be available for sale and signing at a reception Wednesday evening. Videotapes will be presented during lunch and lunch will be catered at the conference facility. Registration includes lunch for Wednesday and Thursday. Meals and breaks will include a balance of protein, omega oils, and low glycemic carbohydrates.
Even with careful consideration about conference details, the success of the meeting depends upon the efforts of each. People figure out for themselves how to deal with conference challenges and how to make the most of thinking. People move around and stretch as needed. Houston is notorious for air-conditioned buildings. People bring layers of clothes in case it is colder inside than out. People organize their time, with others and alone, in order to balance reactions stirred with their best thinking.
I measure the value of this annual meeting based upon how the thinking is used by those who attend. The number of those who attend is one among several evaluation criteria. The meeting has been small but with a high percentage who put theory and science to good work in their family or field. The conference expenses are paid by registration fees and through scholarship donations, AV sales, and other contributions. Those who attend and some who do not make this conference a resource for development of knowledge based upon Bowen theory and research in the natural sciences.